


Beautiful Soul

by Starrie_Wolf



Series: #LoveWins Challenge [5]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Canon-Typical Humour, Canon-compliant swearing, Developing Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Missing Scene, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 08:24:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4699025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starrie_Wolf/pseuds/Starrie_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hisagi spills the beans about Yumichika's real shikai, but Ikkaku doesn't react how Yumichika expects him to. [A missing scene bridging the Arrancar arc and the Wandenreich arc.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beautiful Soul

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Remirat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Remirat/gifts).



“So, I heard something interesting from Hisagi last night.”

Yumichika froze. “And how many bottles of sake had he consumed before this, uh, revelation?” He hoped his voice came out with its usual air of elegant aplomb, but it was hard to tell with the rabbiting pulse lodged in his throat.

Ikkaku squinted at him. “Eh, a fair few,” he conceded.

Curse that Hisagi to the Gates of Hell and back, Yumichika thought viciously.

(Two divisions away, Hisagi Shūhei sneezed violently, clutching at his throbbing head. The explosive action sent the papers stacked haphazardly on his desk flying in a flurry of white, until his office looked as though it had been attacked by a Yuki Onna.)

“He said you’ve got two shikai,” Ikkaku continued, blissfully unaware of how his best friend was busy heaping as much misfortune as he could wish upon the hapless lieutenant-acting-captain of the Ninth. “And that your second one is kidō-based.”

May he be buried under an _avalanche_.

He steeled himself, looking back at Ikkaku. His best friend was like a dog with a bone once he got his claws into something, and truth be told Yumichika was tired of lying all the time about such an integral part of himself. Little Rukia-chan’s almost-execution and the ryoka invasion had shaken up a lot of divisions, made a lot of people re-evaluate what they’d always taken as gospel. Maybe the Eleventh wouldn’t be so quick to kick him out.

“Yeah, what about it?” Yumichika tilted his chin up defiantly, like he was spoiling for a fight. Ikkaku already knew that much, and he hadn’t gone running yet. Tit for tat. If he could keep Ikkaku’s bankai a secret, surely Ikkaku could keep his shikai a secret?

“I can’t believe you!” His best friend lunged forwards, and Yumichika took an involuntary step backwards, his hand going to the hilt of his sword. But Ikkaku’s hands landed solidly on his shoulders, and he was… shaking him? “Dude, what the hell? All this while, you’ve been _holding back_ on me?”

Wait, what?

He was so surprised that he let the next words slip from his mouth. “You don’t… think that it’s too sissy for the Eleventh?”

Ikkaku snorted directly into Yumichika’s face, and at any other time he would have shoved the bald man off, but he was still trying to wrap his mind around the revelation. “Who put that crap in your head? We’re the Eleventh, innit? So whatever _we_ do is the way the Eleventh is supposed to do things, innit? Now come on already, let me see that shikai of yours. Hisagi said you _whooped_ his ass in five minutes flat, but he was stone-dead drunk by that time so I haven’t a damned clue what he’s nattering on about.”

The other man’s maniacal grin was infectious, and Yumichika flipped his hair over his shoulder, finally finding some familiar ground in this bizarre new world. “Yeah? Prepare to get your ass kicked, Madarame.”

~*~*~*~*~

Hōzukimaru clattered to the ground, Fuji Kujaku landing next to it a moment later. Yumichika wiped the sweat from his eyes, shoving his bangs back, and collapsed in a sprawl next to their zanpakutō. As he promised, he kicked Ikkaku’s ass that first time, when the other man wasn’t expecting it. But Ikkaku wasn’t the Third Seat of the Eleventh Division for nothing; he soon came back swinging, shaking off the reiatsu drain like he didn’t even feel it, that annoying shit-eating smirk permanently stretched across his face the entire time.

“Sweet. Think you can use it to hold Yachiru down the next time she comes barging in at ass-crack-o-clock in the morning?”

That was the first time Yumichika looked over at Ikkaku and thought, _beautiful_.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes that's a BuriMyu reference.
> 
> [I have a Tumblr if you're interested!](starriewolf.tumblr.com)


End file.
